ORC Sightlines

October 2003

ORC Helps Spearhead New Initiatives for Dual Career Families

Perhaps the most difficult problem for global companies regarding mobility of employees is the prevalence of families in which both partners have careers—one of which often needs to be put on hold when the other takes a foreign assignment. In fact, ORC’s Dual Careers and International Assignments Survey found that concern over these issues is the most common reason employees reject international assignments.

More and more companies, unwilling to compromise their ability to recruit, retain, and deploy the most talented employees, have sought ways to help expatriate spouses and partners continue their careers while on assignment. As a result, the number of companies providing job search assistance, career counseling, and retraining to spouses and partners while on assignment more than doubled between 1992 and 2002. Companies have also been forced to consider alternative ways of satisfying the business need for internationally mobile employees, and are increasingly offering short-term and commuter assignments.

A few companies have gone even further, seeking innovative approaches that will make it easier for spouses and partners to continue their careers while accompanying employees on assignments. In addition to providing access to information about educational opportunities and job openings in the assignment location or helping spouses financially, these organizations have joined forces via consortiums and partnerships to overcome employment obstacles for “trailing spouses.”

One of the biggest barriers to employment for spouses in many countries is obtaining a work permit. The Permits Foundation, sponsored by ORC Worldwide and 20 global companies, including AstraZeneca, BP, Corning, IBM, Schlumberger, Siemens, Shell, and UBS, works with national governments to encourage them to relax restrictive permit regulations for spouses of expatriate employees. Partnerjob.com maintains a worldwide database of jobs open to applications from spouses of employees in the 25 member companies.

In recent meetings at the UN in New York, the World Health Organization in Geneva, and the Association of Human Resources Management in International Organisations (AHRMIO) in Vienna, Siobhan Cummins, managing director of ORC’s London office, briefed organizations on ORC’s research into dual career issues and how leading companies are addressing them. Best practices, in addition to those already mentioned, include

For more information on policies and practices for dual career families or other employee mobility issues, contact Siobhan Cummins, +44-207-591-5600 or siobhan.cummins@orcww.com.

Homeland Security: Public/Private Partnership

In addition to figuring out how to protect their own employees in the U.S. and abroad, American corporations are being asked to play a pivotal role in assuring national security in the post-9/11 world. But many are finding it a challenge to respond responsibly to conflicting priorities and instructions from a variety of government agencies and military organizations. To examine the roots of this problem and consider how government and private industry can work together more effectively, ORC Worldwide, in partnership with The Brookings Institution, held a meeting last month of government officials and HR, OSH, and legal experts from several major corporations. Participants heard the views of current and former leaders of the Department of Homeland Security, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, and Congress, as well as Brookings, ORC, and private companies.

Speakers at the meeting made clear that communication problems among government entities and the private sector threaten our ability to reach the goals of the homeland security program, and participants were agreed that these problems must be explicitly addressed and resolved. ORC is considering developing a network of companies that would work together to explore best approaches to these issues and bring the perspective of the private sector to the government. For more information about these issues, contact Bill Ament in ORC’s Washington office (202-293-2980).

ORC Worldwide Marks 30 Years in Europe

Thirty years ago this month, ORC opened our first office outside the U.S. on Albermarle Street in London. Since that time we have had to move twice to larger quarters in London, where we now make our home on Sloane Street, and we’ve added European offices in Paris and Munich. (ORC has also been in Asia for ten years, with offices in Tokyo and Singapore.) Our services to European multinationals and other clients with regional operations in Europe have expanded from our original core business of international compensation to include employee relations, equal opportunities, compensation, and occupational safety and health. We look forward to working with you in Europe for another thirty years and more.

ORC Testimony at EEOC Hearing

Nita Beecher, chair of ORC’s Employment Law & Litigation Group, will testify before the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission during a public hearing October 29 on proposed revisions to the EEO-1 Employer Information Report. The commission’s proposals would increase the number of racial/ethnic and job categories in the mandatory annual reporting form and would significantly affect how employers track their workforce demographics.

Working closely with senior diversity and EEO leaders in its Workforce Opportunity Network and with in-house labor and employment counsel in its Employment Law & Litigation Group, ORC submitted comments to the commission outlining the practical problems and financial burden the new regulations would create for employers and urging the changes be delayed until 2005 so that employers could make the necessary preparations.

ORC was one of nine entities invited to testify at the hearing. Watch future Sightlines for updates on the outcome.

Complexities of HR Management Multiply in Japanese-Owned Subsidiaries

Human resource managers working in the US operations of Japanese-owned companies face the same complexity of issues and rapid change as their colleagues in other companies—times two. While businesses in both cultures are undergoing shifts in corporate governance, management priorities, and practices—and in some ways actually growing more alike in the process—they often start from very different places. As a result, the HR leader seeking to work within the two cultures simultaneously needs to be able to navigate each while building bridges between them.

Members of ORC’s network for Senior HR Executives in Japanese Subsidiaries often describe the culture of their parent organization as being characterized by risk aversion, consensus-based decision making, a longer range strategic outlook than is common in the US, and a hierarchal, centralized structure that is slowly beginning to decentralize. One of the most prominent traits of Japanese companies, and sometimes the hardest for Americans to get used to, is the family-like social structure within the company. Americans often feel excluded from the family circle at first and find they need to invest extra work to build relationships with their Japanese colleagues.

The HR function in Japanese companies tends to be very highly respected but, interestingly enough, not usually because of its strategic role. In fact, HR contributes little to strategy in most Japanese firms because it is more typical to have separate planning departments that provide that input. On the other hand, the Japanese tend to value generalists highly (but specialists less so), which influences how they interact with US HR staff.

Much about the day-to-day issues facing HR leaders in US- and Japanese-owned firms is similar. However, American HR managers are more apt to seek data from other companies and industries on how they are handling these issues. Those in Japanese-owned companies are sometimes frustrated by their parents’ unwillingness to participate in benchmarking activities. As the very existence of the ORC network suggests, this tendency, too, is beginning to change as more Japanese companies recognize a need to improve their competence in certain areas of HR management.

Related Links
Sightlines Archive